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HILL AND<br />
WANG<br />
T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E<br />
<strong>Night</strong><br />
Accelerated<br />
Reader<br />
by Elie Wiesel<br />
A new translation by Marion Wiesel<br />
“To the best of my knowledge no one has left<br />
behind so moving a record.”<br />
—Alfred Kazin<br />
144 pages • ISBN 0-374-50001-0<br />
WINNER of<br />
THE NOBEL<br />
PEACE PRIZE<br />
Credit: Sergey Bermeniev<br />
TO THE TEACHER<br />
<strong>Night</strong> is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply saddening<br />
autobiographical account of surviving the Holocaust while a young teenager. It is<br />
considered a classic of Holocaust literature, and was one of the first texts to be<br />
recognized as such.<br />
Set in a series of German concentration camps, <strong>Night</strong> offers much more than a litany<br />
of the daily terrors—the unspeakable yet commonplace occurrences, the everyday<br />
perversion and rampant inhumanity—of life inside a death camp. However painful<br />
this memoir is to read, it also keenly and eloquently addresses many of the<br />
philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of<br />
what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.<br />
Elie (or Eliezer) Wiesel’s recorded experiences—detailing the deaths of his family<br />
and friends, the death of his innocence as a young man, and the death of his God—<br />
reveal the formation of a sensibility that must accommodate the sorrow and<br />
wisdom implicit in living through a tragedy. Shocking, brutal, and perceptive,<br />
<strong>Night</strong> is a testament of Wiesel’s own memories, wounds, and losses. But this<br />
memoir is also a testament of the Jewish people. <strong>Night</strong> speaks for Wiesel and his
family while also speaking for all Jews who knew about life and death in the camps;<br />
like many other eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust, it looks to the individual in<br />
order to convey the psychological and emotional injuries of all who carry the<br />
burden of survival.<br />
PREPARING<br />
TO READ<br />
Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, has written dozens of novels,<br />
short stories, essays, plays, and historical studies. He teaches humanities at Boston<br />
University, was instrumental in the creation of the United States Holocaust<br />
Memorial Museum, and is considered one of the premier humanists of modern<br />
times. Wiesel has dedicated his life to speaking out against hatred, bigotry, and<br />
genocide, and <strong>Night</strong>, his autobiographical first book, is among the finest and most<br />
important works of Holocaust reportage ever published. The following questions are<br />
meant to underscore this importance. These questions aim not only to guide your<br />
students through this book’s narrative and arguments, but also to highlight its<br />
historical cohesiveness and emotional heft.<br />
Lastly, given the gravely serious historical perspectives set forth in <strong>Night</strong>, teachers<br />
are strongly encouraged to equip their students with a considerable degree of<br />
background information on the Holocaust. For those so inclined, a section titled<br />
“Suggestions for Further Study” comes after the following questions.<br />
QUESTIONS ON<br />
COMPREHENSION<br />
1. Describe in detail the characters of Eliezer and Moishe the Beadle. What is the<br />
nature of their relationship<br />
2. Consider Eliezer’s feelings for his family, especially his father. What about his<br />
father’s character or place in the Jewish community of Sighet commands Eliezer’s<br />
respect or admiration<br />
3. Early in the narrative, Moishe tells Eliezer, “Man asks and God replies. But we<br />
don’t understand His replies. We cannot understand them” (p. 5). Is this a paradox<br />
How does Eliezer react to this seemingly unfair assertion Apply Moishe’s statement<br />
to the ongoing crisis of faith that Eliezer faces throughout the course of <strong>Night</strong>.<br />
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4. “And then, one day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet,” writes Wiesel,<br />
quite bluntly. “And Moishe the Beadle was a foreigner” (p. 6). Why do you suppose<br />
this shocking information is delivered so matter-of-factly What is the point of<br />
Wiesel’s abruptness Also, consider the manner in which Moishe is treated by the<br />
Jews of Sighet after he has escaped the Gestapo’s capture. Are the people happy to<br />
see him Is he himself even happy to be alive Explain why Moishe has returned to<br />
the village. Why don’t the Jewish townspeople believe the horrible news he brings<br />
back to them<br />
5. Time and again, the people of Sighet doubt the advance of the German army.<br />
Why When the Germans do arrive, and even once they have moved all the Jews<br />
into ghettos, the Jewish townspeople still seem to ignore or suppress their fear.<br />
“Most people thought that we would remain in the ghetto until the end of the war,<br />
until the arrival of the Red Army. Afterward everything would be as before” (p. 12).<br />
What might be the reasons for the townspeople’s widespread denial of the evidence<br />
facing them<br />
6. There are a few instances where we learn of Eliezer and his family missing out on<br />
opportunities to escape from the Germans (pp. 9, 14, and 82). How did these<br />
missed chances influence your reading of this memoir And how do these<br />
unfortunate events fit into your understanding of the Jewish experience of the<br />
Holocaust as a whole<br />
7. Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology who received the gift of prophecy with<br />
the simultaneous curse that no one would ever believe her. Compare Cassandra to<br />
Mrs. Schächter. Are there other Cassandras in <strong>Night</strong> Who are they<br />
8. Not long after arriving at Birkenau, Eliezer and his father experience the horrors<br />
of the crematory firsthand—and are nearly killed themselves. “Babies!” Wiesel<br />
writes. “Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes . . . children thrown into the flames”<br />
(p. 32). Look back on Eliezer’s physical, mental, and emotional reactions to this<br />
hellish and inexplicable experience. How does the story of <strong>Night</strong> change at this<br />
point How does Wiesel himself change<br />
9. Consider the inscription that appears above the entrance to Auschwitz. What is<br />
it supposed to mean What meaning, if any, does this slogan come to have for<br />
Eliezer<br />
10. Reflecting on the three weeks he spent at Auschwitz, Wiesel admits on p. 45:<br />
“Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish<br />
people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred<br />
with Job!” What happens to the man called Job in the Bible What is his story<br />
Explain why Eliezer feels connected to him.<br />
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11. On p. 65, Eliezer witnesses one of the several public hangings he sees in Buna.<br />
“For God’s sake, where is God” asks a prisoner who also sees the hanging. “Where<br />
He is” answers Eliezer, though talking only to himself. “This is where—hanging<br />
here from this gallows . . .” What does he mean by this How could God have been<br />
hanged How have Eliezer’s thoughts and feelings changed since he identified with<br />
Job while in Auschwitz (see question 10) Discuss the relationship that Wiesel has<br />
with God throughout <strong>Night</strong>.<br />
12. Two of the people Eliezer encounters more than once in the narrative are Akiba<br />
Drumer and Juliek. Where and when does Eliezer cross paths with these<br />
individuals Describe their personalities. What are their outstanding traits<br />
Describe the relationships that Eliezer has with each of them. How do their<br />
respective deaths affect Eliezer What does each person mean to him<br />
13. As the story progresses, we witness scenes in which the Jews have been reduced<br />
to acting—and even treating their fellow prisoners—like rabid animals. During an<br />
air raid over Buna (see p. 59), a starved man risks being shot by crawling out to a<br />
cauldron of soup that stands in the middle of the camp, only to thrust his face into<br />
the boiling liquid once he has arrived there safely. Where else do we see examples<br />
of human beings committing such insane acts What leads people to such horrific<br />
behavior Is it fair to say that such beastliness in the death camps is inevitable<br />
Do Eliezer and his father fall prey to such tragedies<br />
14. In the concluding pages of <strong>Night</strong>, Eliezer’s father is dying a slow, painful death<br />
in Buchenwald. But Eliezer is there to comfort him, or at least to try. Does Eliezer<br />
see his father as a burden by this point, or does he feel only pity and sorrow for him<br />
Compare and contrast the father-son relationship you see at the end of this<br />
memoir with the one you saw at the beginning.<br />
15. Look again at the opening pages of <strong>Night</strong>. When it begins, twelve-year-old Eliezer<br />
lives in the Transylvanian village of Sighet with his parents and sisters. How does<br />
being introduced to such people alter your understanding of the fact that, a halfcentury<br />
ago, six million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust How is this<br />
sickening truth achieved through <strong>Night</strong>’s dual purposes of memoir and history If this<br />
is a story of one person’s journey as well as a history of one horrendous part of World<br />
War II, how do the plot and the theme of the book overlap How does the author<br />
blend the personal and the universal aspects of <strong>Night</strong> In what ways does Wiesel<br />
relate not only his own nightmarish memory of the Holocaust but also humanity’s<br />
16. At once unthinkable and unforgettable, the autobiographical <strong>Night</strong> offers an<br />
eyewitness account of the utmost importance, but it is essentially one young man’s<br />
story. What had you read, heard, or otherwise learned about the Holocaust before<br />
reading <strong>Night</strong> How did Wiesel’s remembrance agree with or differ from what you<br />
already knew about the history of this event<br />
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17. Elie Wiesel has written in The New York Times (June 19, 2000) about the<br />
difficulties he faced in finding the right words for the painful story he wanted to<br />
tell—and had to tell—in <strong>Night</strong>. “I knew I had to testify about my past but I did not<br />
know how to go about it,” he wrote, adding that his religious mentors, his favorite<br />
authors, and the Talmudic sages of his youth were of surprisingly little help. “I felt<br />
incapable and perhaps unworthy of fulfilling my task as survivor and messenger.<br />
I had things to say but not the words to say them . . . Words seemed weak and pale<br />
. . . And yet it was necessary to continue.” Wiesel did continue, and although <strong>Night</strong><br />
was originally rejected by every major publishing house in France and the United<br />
States, eventually it was published to universal acclaim. As a story, albeit a true<br />
story, how fitting did you find the words, imagery, and overall plotting of <strong>Night</strong><br />
Does the author succeed in his self-described goals as a “survivor and messenger”<br />
who must “testify” to his readers<br />
18. Given its haunting, clearly rendered, and universal themes of suffering and<br />
survival in the face of absolute evil, <strong>Night</strong> is a book that is likely to be echoed or<br />
suggested in other works you encounter. In other words, it is a classic. Identify<br />
several other books that—in your view—echo or expand onWiesel’s classic. Explain<br />
your choices.<br />
19. Given its horrific and incomprehensible nature, the Holocaust is sometimes<br />
described as an “unimaginable” moment of history, and yet—apart from scores of<br />
nonfiction accounts like autobiographies (such as <strong>Night</strong>) and documentary films—<br />
it is an event that has been imagined or reimagined in many novels, stories, movies,<br />
and so forth. Is this contradictory Why or why not Does the genre of historical<br />
fiction ultimately help or harm the nightmarish actuality of the Holocaust And<br />
how, if at all, did reading <strong>Night</strong> influence your idea of how best to discuss, imagine,<br />
and conceptualize the Holocaust<br />
SUGGESTIONS FOR<br />
FURTHER STUDY<br />
A great number of supplemental sources are available for those eager to expand on<br />
their knowledge of the origins, history, and aftermath of the Holocaust—and<br />
within that number a wide variety. The ever-present need to record our history so<br />
as not to forget it, as well as the all-important necessity of documenting the<br />
Holocaust so as never to let it be repeated, have in recent decades combined forces<br />
and flourished in the creation of a genre known as Holocaust literature. And trends<br />
in historical, literary, and cultural scholarship—in part taking their cue from the<br />
phenomenon of Holocaust literature, and from the event itself—have subsequently<br />
established an academic discipline called Holocaust studies. Either Holocaust<br />
literature or Holocaust studies—both of them vast fields of personal, critical, and<br />
scholarly endeavor—could be easily explored via the Internet, or else at a local<br />
5
library, as could such key secondary topics as Judaica and World War II history.<br />
Students who aim to know about the events that figure prominently in <strong>Night</strong><br />
should be encouraged to pursue such avenues.<br />
Also, the following books are recommended as excellent points of departure for<br />
students wishing to give more thought to this crucial subject: Elie Wiesel’s two<br />
volumes of memoirs, All Rivers Run to the Sea and And the Sea Is Never Full; The<br />
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank; The Holocaust and The Boys by Martin<br />
Gilbert; The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg; All But My Life* by<br />
Gerda Weissmann Klein; The Hours After by Gerda Weissmann Klein and Kurt<br />
Klein; Survival in Auschwitz and The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi; The<br />
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer; On Burning Ground by<br />
Michael Skakun; Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, volumes 1 and 2, by Art Spiegelman; and<br />
The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman. As mentioned before, Elie Wiesel has written<br />
dozens of other works, among them novels, memoirs, short stories, essays, plays,<br />
and historical studies. Students especially interested in <strong>Night</strong> may also wish to seek<br />
out this author’s other volumes, in particular the two other volumes of The <strong>Night</strong><br />
Trilogy: Dawn and Day.<br />
Moreover, many motion pictures—both fiction and nonfiction—have been made<br />
about the Holocaust. A short list of such films that have received considerable<br />
critical acclaim would include the following: <strong>Night</strong> and Fog (directed by Alain<br />
Resnais), Schindler’s List (directed by Steven Spielberg), Shoah (directed by Claude<br />
Lanzmann), Sophie’s Choice (directed by Alan J. Pakula), Life Is Beautiful (directed<br />
by Roberto Benigni), and The Sorrow and the Pity (directed by Marcel Ophüls).<br />
Screening any of these important films for a class that has read <strong>Night</strong> will surely<br />
foster an enlightening range of comparisons and contrasts amid students.<br />
* A Hill and Wang Teacher’s <strong>Guide</strong> is also available for this title.<br />
ABOUT THE AUTHOR<br />
Elie Wiesel, the author of some forty books, is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the<br />
Humanities at Boston University. Professor Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace<br />
Prize in 1986.<br />
Scott Pitcock, who wrote this teacher’s guide, is an editor and writer based in<br />
Tulsa, Oklahoma.<br />
6
NOTES<br />
7
NIGHT Teacher’s <strong>Guide</strong> ISBN 0-8090-7357-9 Copyright © 2005 by Holtzbrinck Publishers<br />
FREE TEACHER’S GUIDES AVAILABLE FROM HOLTZBRINCK PUBLISHERS<br />
Holtzbrinck is pleased to offer educators free Teacher’s <strong>Guide</strong>s. If you would like to receive a copy<br />
of any of our guides, please email your request to academic@hholt.com; fax to 646-307-5745; or<br />
mail to Holtzbrinck Academic Marketing, 175 Fifth Avenue, 21st floor, New York, NY 10010.<br />
Please include the ISBN (listed below) with your request. These guides are also available online, at<br />
our website: www.holtzbrinckpublishers.com/academic.<br />
Francis Bok, ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY 0-312-33760-4<br />
Kalisha Buckhanon, UPSTATE 0-312-34448-1<br />
Philip Caputo, A RUMOR OF WAR 0-8050-6791-4<br />
Agatha Christie, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE 0-312-28815-8<br />
Michael Dorris, A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER 0-312-42271-7<br />
Margaret Edson, WIT 0-374-98704-1<br />
Barbara Ehrenreich, NICKEL AND DIMED 0-8050-8381-2<br />
Robert Fitzgerald, trans., THE ODYSSEY 0-374-96138-7<br />
Robert Fitzgerald, trans., THE ILIAD 0-374-94107-6<br />
Robert Frost, ROBERT FROST’S POEMS 0-312-99131-2<br />
Iris Jacob, MY SISTERS’ VOICES 0-8050-7405-8<br />
Jamaica Kincaid, ANNIE JOHN 0-374-90230-5<br />
Lawrence & Lee, THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL 0-8090-7366-8<br />
Gerda Weissmann Klein, ALL BUT MY LIFE 0-374-95781-9<br />
Bernard Malamud, THE NATURAL 0-374-96037-2<br />
Robert J. Mrazek, STONEWALL’S GOLD 0-312-28189-7<br />
Robert Pinsky, trans., THE INFERNO OF DANTE 0-374-94121-1<br />
Rifa’i & Ainbinder, WE JUST WANT TO LIVE HERE 0-312-32292-5<br />
Ntozake Shange, BETSEY BROWN 0-312-28190-0<br />
Dodie Smith, I CAPTURE THE CASTLE 0-312-28813-1<br />
Elie Wiesel, NIGHT 0-8090-7357-9